Fly Fishing at Minipi

A Few TipsYou’ll be using much larger flies than you normally do back home, so bring a heavier rod than the one you normally use on small streams. And longer rods are good: 9 and 10 footers, 5, 6 and 8 weight rods rigged with weight-forward lines, 9 ft. leaders with 8 pound tippets.

On a given day, if rises are sparse, the guides will suggest you target pike or char with big streamers. And you’ll be fishing over Great Northern Pike up to 20 lbs. and landlocked Arctic Char up to and even over 10 lbs. So, for the pike, bring along some wire tippets — the flexible, knot-able ones are best.

Flies Most Often Used on the Minipi
The flies in the fly gallery are not grouped by early, mid or late season. This is a large selection that works best throughout the season under nearly all the conditions.

You’ll recognize most if not all of the patterns. Again, what’s different here is the size. Minipi means big flies: 4s, 6s, 8s.

If you had to pick 4 essential flies, pick a Muddler Minnow, a large Deer Hair Mouse , a Grey Wulff and an orange Bomber.

If there is one fly that you should not be without, it is the Muddler Minnow. Bring half a dozen big ones — 4s and 6s.

Brookies pounce on mice!
You’ll need half dozen Deer Hair Mice. Big ones. They work in the fast water, in the foam pools and skittered across calm flats. One of the most exciting of the Minipi experiences is seeing a six pound brookie porpoise up to pounce on a mouse…or, drop a mouse with a plop on smooth water and watch a pike rise up twenty feet away and angle in on your mouse making a bow-wave like a torpedo fired from a submarine.

A small-fly caveat
With all this emphasis on big flies, we must add a caveat. Sometimes, especially early in the season — June 15 to July 15 — you may encounter a hatch of little slate-colored mayflies, size 12, 14 and 16. What’s more, the caddis hatches can also be small. So bring a box of small standard dry flies like Elk Hair Caddis — 12s or 14s will do — and small slate drakes — 12s, 14s, 16s, and Adams.